Scene Assignment Recap

The scene assignment had been my favorite project. It teaches more than you even realize your learning at the time. It's more than storyboards, shotlists, and casting - it's about learning how to work with others and how to conduct yourself.

Personally, I'm way more comfortable in the DP role. It feels more natural to me. I love to be kind of the right hand man, the foil to suggestions, and the person who helps the director visually articulate their vision. I had a lot of fun working with Hamilton on his scene assignment. I learned a lot about working with someone with a different workflow. I'm a planner (atleast when it comes to filmmaking). I love having everything worked out beforehand. I like to really know what I'm going to be shooting and I try to stay ahead of it through - visual references, detailed storyboards, lighting and blocking floor plans, and other OCD habits. On the other hand, Hamilton is a little bit more relaxed about preproduction, and I think it was good for me to work with him because it allowed me to practice some improvisational lighting. We did a lot of it on the fly without too much planning. With that being said, I think the results came out well. There are a lot of things I would go back and change, specifically the wideshot, the two-shot, and some small details in the CU's. Then again, I think the idea of a "perfect shot" is a myth. There is no perfect shot, and that's why we keep shooting.

I also learned a lot about directing from this exercise. That's actually kind of an understatement. I knew going in and that I had a lot of things I needed to work on as a director. I tried very hard to work through the details of the scene before hand so that I knew my vision in and out. In certain areas like casting, wardrobe, blocking, and location. I still struggled when in actually came to working with my actor. Taking my vision of a performance and bringing it out from an actor is really hard for me. Luckily, Andrew really picked up on the scene and did a great job. My other big struggle is to not be the DP. We shot everything in one day. During the first part of the day I did a much better job staying relaxed and trusting Hamilton. For some of the more complicated shots I let Hamilton shoot them for several takes, and if I was still looking for something I might take a few tries. As the day wore on though and time got thin, I found myself sidelining Hamilton more and more. At the time I rationalized this as quickest way to push through. But looking back, I was depriving myself of an opportunity to grow as a director and for Hamilton to grow as a DP. I also made the mistake of shooting the most pivotal part of the scene (the dialogue) towards the end of the night when everyone's energy was running a little low. Bad move on my part, and the results suffered some.

All in all though, it was nice to see a lot progress between this and my last efforts as a director. I really can't thank everyone involved enough, you guys were great. Thanks for the patience.

-Henry